Everyone Is Photogenic: Feastival edition

You may have heard me say that everyone is photogenic… Every once in a while there’s a special opportunity to demonstrate it… here’s a few images from “JJ’s Magic Photo Booth” at the 2012 Feastival – a special benefit for the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe. Check them out:

Feastival brings together the Festival’s team…

… with the region’s finest chefs representing many great restaurants…

… and longtime Festival supporters…

… some that I hadn’t met before…

… and longtime familiar faces too.

This is Kendra, who was one of the aerialists performing for the event…

… you’ve got to be strong to pull off those aerial stunts…

… and it’s fun!

As this parade of beautiful faces came through my little booth…

… there were great smiles…

… and loads of cuteness…

We call it a “booth”, but that’s a bit of a misnomer.

“JJ’s Magic Photo Booth” is a little bit more of a jury-rigged photo studio…

… where I invite the community in…

… to celebrate their shared humanity…

… through simple, spontaneous portraits.

It’s always a good time…

… and one of my favorite things is dragging in the festival’s technicians… They’re used to hiding in the shadows backstage…

… but each one of them would look great onstage too, that’s what this is all about.

We’re used to seeing individual portraits…

… maybe on the cover of magazines….

… or on billboards…

… but there’s something special about photographing a whole community…

… you start to get a sense of something…

… something that transcends the beauty of all of these individual amazing humans…

… because really, have you seen a single one yet that wasn’t photogenic?

(aside: if you’re not already plugged into the LiveArts/Fringe community, find out about it on their website and signup for their email list so that you don’t miss it next fall. And while the Festival itself is two weeks in September, they also have other great events going on year-round. )

Yep, if I’m going to photograph everyone else, it’s only fair to get a little taste of my own medicine too, right?

So beautiful humans, remember this:Everyone is photogenic. For every picture of you that you don’t like, it’s the photographer’s fault not yours.

If you haven’t yet read the full manifesto at EveryoneIsPhotogenic.com, please check it out now. It only takes a few minutes, but it’s worth thinking through and sharing.

While you’re at it, please take a moment to sign up if you might be interested in participating in a special portrait project next year (this is also an invitation that I’d love if you could share with anyone who’d be interested.)